Birks
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| | Raps:3-4, max ↨20ft
Red Tape:No permit required Shuttle:None Vehicle:Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Condition Reports: | 18 Jun 2023
"A great trip, All anchors sound, Abseiled off tree on RL of first drop to get a more aquatic line, highly recommended in these low flows. Also abseile |
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| Best season: | April-October
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56.6029, -3.8720
56.6140, -3.8663
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Introduction[edit]
The Birks of Aberfeldy is a Beautiful scenic Gorge. It was first made famous through a poem by Rabbie Burns of the same name. The rim hike is well built and popular with tourists, so you will often end up with an audience when you absail the first drop. The rest of the Gorge is well hidden and feels like its own little word. For locals it is a fun trip to get a new perspective on this well trodden area. The decent is mainly technical in nature, but does have a few slides and jumps if you know where to look and inspect first. It also has one of the shorter trips between the end of the canyon and a pub.
Approach[edit]
Getting There[edit]
The birks is located on the hillside above the small town of Aberfeldy. This is easily reached for the east from the A9 by taking the A827 west from Ballinluig. Once reaching the traffic lights at the centre of town, turn up the hill following signs to Crieff. Follow this road to the next set of traffic lights, where, after turning right, leads you to the car park. It is possible to run a shuttle to the top of the falls, by turning right before the traffic lights. This takes you up a steep single track road. This road will turn right, but keep on straight up the hill. After a hairpin bend and a track joining from the right, there is a layby on the left. This is a private road so you should not park here.
The Walk In[edit]
The Gorge has extremely well built paths on either side, and both paths lead to the top. Taking the path on the right is the fastest route, but stays well above the gorge for its entire route and offers little of interest. Walking up the left side is more interesting. This starts by crossing a footbridge, which is a great place to check the water levels. Follow this path along the stream, saying hi to Rabie Burns as you pass him on his bench, to a point where the gorge narrows to a slot. This is the exit of the canyon.
The paths now works its way up the side in a series of stairs and switchbacks, but half way up an old viewpoint has been fenced off. This fence can be climbed around or slid under, and the viewpoint offers great views of the route, and is also a possible exit point. Continue up the zig zags and path until you reach the bridge over the top drop. There is nothing of interest above this, and so the route starts on either side of the bridge.
Descent[edit]
The Main Gorge[edit]
From the bridge, there are two possible decent options. If the river is high, the large larch tree forms a good anchor for a primarily dry abseil down river right. In low waters, however, it might be more fun to rig one of the smaller trees on RL for a more aquatic line down the center of the main waterfall. Both of these abseils leave you in a pool above a 4m drop to the main canyon floor. Depending on the water level and skill level of the group this can be down-climbed or rigged for abseil using the sling around the jammed tree river left.
Below this, there is about 200m of fun but uncomplicated gorge walking. The big drop here can be downclimbed round to RR, where you enter a fun cave-like feature, or you can downclimb the narrow groves RC. Bellow this you reach the second of the main falls. This has an anchor in place around a tree RR, but you have to traverse out on a ledge to reach this. This Absail is 8m, and has a little undercut cave at the bottom. No matter how deep this pool is, there are ledges and rocks under the surface and it is not safe to jump.
Below this is the bulk of the technical ropework. The gorge opens up to a cascade at the top of a large fall. There are bolts RL to set up a handline all the way around RL of the waterfall. This is 20m There are quite a few intermediary bolts to fix it to. From this abseil station, there is an easy dry abseil down to the pool 14m below. You can abseil off of two bolts further up for a more aquatic line, although rope retrieval from these anchors can sometimes be a little problematic.
Below this all difficulties can be downclimbed, first with a few small drops, and then a 4m jump from RL into a large pool. Once this is done, it is easy to exit to the abandoned viewpoint on RR.
The Lower Birks[edit]
Bellow the viewpoint the 8m drop can be jumped or downclimbed, but should be inspected as it is a hotspot for debris. A simple gorge walk then leads to the last interesting features of the canyon, where there are two small drops in a tight slot section. These can both be downclimbed, but the first one is more challenging than it looks and can be bypassed RR. Below this, swim out of the slot and exit RR.
Exit[edit]
There are two potential exit points for this canyon. After the toboggan feature described above, the old viewpoint is clearly visible RR. Climb over the fence, and exit back up the abandoned pathway. This leads back to the main path which can be followed to the car park. Alternatively, if you continue down the Lower Birks as outlined above, then after the slot section the river will flatten out. Exit the pool RR and rejoin the main path. As you walk out, there is one more notable feature. After the statue, there is a point where the river flows over a short waterfall, then through a carved channel. This can be a fun toboggan in high flows, but less so in low flows.
Red tape[edit]
Beta sites[edit]
UK CanyonGuides.org : Birks of Aberfeldy- Icopro.org : The Birks
Trip reports and media[edit]
Background[edit]
Catchment: 29.79km2